The present invention relates to an air-conditioning apparatus that performs indoor air-conditioning.
There are various types of conventional air-conditioning apparatus such as an air-conditioning apparatus incorporating an indoor unit and outdoor unit as one body and a separate type air-conditioning apparatus with an indoor unit separate from an outdoor unit. Here, this separate type air-conditioning apparatus will be explained as a specific example below.
As shown in FIG. 15, a conventional separate type air-conditioning apparatus capable of air-conditioning operation is configured by an indoor unit 1, an outdoor unit 2 and indoor and outdoor connecting electric wires 3 that electrically connect the indoor and outdoor units. This indoor unit 1 is configured by a main switch 4, an indoor electronic control apparatus 5, an indoor fan motor 6 such as a transistor motor and an indoor upper/lower blade drive louver motor 7. On the other hand, the outdoor unit 2 is configured by an outdoor electronic control apparatus 8, a four-way valve 9 that switches the path of a coolant according to a cooling cycle and heating cycle, an outdoor fan motor 10 such as an induction motor and a compressor 11 that compresses the coolant.
The operation of this separate type air-conditioning apparatus will be explained below. The indoor unit 1 is connected with a commercial power supply 12 and when the main unit switch 4 of the indoor unit 1 is turned on, power is supplied to the indoor electronic control apparatus 5 and a control operation is started, making the indoor fan motor 6 and louver motor 7 run and starting to circulate the indoor air through an indoor heat exchanger (not shown in the figure). Here, when the user instructs the start of operation through signal input, the indoor electronic control apparatus 5 controls a main relay (not shown in the figure) to close the circuit and supply the commercial power supply 12 to the outdoor unit 2. At this time, power is supplied from the commercial power supply 12 to the outdoor electronic control apparatus 8, which makes the outdoor electronic control apparatus 8 start a control operation, applies a specified voltage to the compressor 11, makes the compressor 11 start to run, connects the commercial power supply 12 also to the outdoor fan motor 10, starting, as a result, to blow the outdoor air into an outdoor heat exchanger (not shown in the figure). Under the instruction of the outdoor electronic control apparatus 8, the four-way valve 9 that switches the path of the coolant is in the position to flow the coolant through the cooling cycle path when the commercial power supply 12 is not connected. In this condition, the air-conditioning apparatus starts a cooling operation.
Next, when the user instructs a heating operation through signal input, the outdoor electronic control apparatus 8 connects the commercial power supply 12 to the four-way valve 9. This operation switches the coolant path to a heating cycle and a heating operation starts. At this time, the outdoor fan motor 10 blows the outdoor air into the outdoor heat exchanger and heat of the outdoor air is introduced to the coolant by the outdoor heat exchanger and the coolant is vaporized, compressed by the compressor 11 and sent to the indoor heat exchanger.
For example, if the indoor unit 1 and outdoor unit 2 which are performing a cooling operation or heating operation as described above are stopped due to a power failure and recovered from this power failure, the indoor electronic apparatus 5 restarts the system in a specified time to keep a pressure balance of the compressor 11 so that the system automatically recovers in its operation mode before the power failure.
However, the conventional air-conditioning apparatus has a uniformly set specified time to keep a pressure balance of the compressor, and therefore if in a household, factory or office where a plurality of the aforementioned air-conditioning apparatuses with auto recovery control, these air-conditioning apparatuses are stopped due to a power failure and then recovered from the power failure and restarted by auto recovery control, the plurality of the air-conditioning apparatuses are restarted when it is detected that the specified time has elapsed, which provokes a problem that due to an instantaneous voltage drop of the commercial power supply the air-conditioning apparatuses are stopped again.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an air-conditioning apparatus operation control method and an air-conditioning apparatus that will prevent a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses from simultaneously restarting upon automatic recovery after a recovery of power and from being stopped again due to a voltage drop. To attain this object, the air-conditioning apparatus operation control method of the present invention makes a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses discretely restart upon recovery of power, and in particular discretely restart with random delay times, thereby making it possible to prevent the air-conditioning apparatuses from stopping again due to a voltage drop caused when the plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses simultaneously restart at the time of automatic recovery after the recovery of power.
When a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses stopped by a power failure are automatically recovered in an operation mode before the power failure, the operation control method of the present invention adopts an air-conditioning apparatus operation control method that makes the plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses restart discretely with different delay times or delay times varying among a number of groups of air-conditioning apparatuses at the time of recovery of power, making it possible to prevent the air-conditioning apparatuses from stopping again due to a voltage drop when the plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses simultaneously restart at the time of automatic recovery after the recovery of power.
Moreover, this operation control method adopts a method of randomly generating and deciding delay times until a restart of air-conditioning apparatuses and restarting those air-conditioning apparatuses with these decided delay times, providing an extremely high probability of discretely restarting a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses.
Furthermore, when a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses stopped by a power failure are automatically recovered in an operation mode before the power failure after recovery of power, this operation control method adopts an air-conditioning apparatus operation control method that decides delay times until a restart according to each corresponding air-conditioning load before the power failure or the operation state before the power failure, and restarts the air-conditioning apparatuses with the decided delay times, providing an extremely high probability of discretely restarting a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses and providing an extremely high probability of avoiding a case where the air-conditioning apparatuses are stopped again due to a voltage drop when all air-conditioning apparatuses simultaneously restart.
Furthermore, this operation control method adopts an air-conditioning apparatus operation control method that decides again a delay time by further adding a randomly generated time to the delay time until the restart decided according to each own air-conditioning load before the power failure or operation state before the power failure and restarts the air-conditioning apparatuses with this delay time.
Furthermore, this operation control method is a method of changing delay times according to the length of power failure period, making it possible to effectively use the power failure period and shorten the time after the recovery of power of separate type air-conditioning apparatuses until their restart.
The air-conditioning apparatus of a first embodiment of the present invention automatically recovers in the operation mode before the power failure after recovery of power and is provided with detecting means for detecting set data that determines the operation of the air-conditioning apparatus, a calculation circuit that converts the set data from the detecting means to variables, a storage circuit that stores the set data from the detecting means and variable data from the calculation circuit, and a decision circuit that decides a delay time until a restart according to the variable data, and is capable of deciding the delay time until a restart of a separate type air-conditioning apparatus at the time of the recovery of power according to the set data before the power failure. An operation mode for automatically recovering a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses that are stopped by a power failure in the operation mode before the power failure after the recovery of power provides an extremely high probability that a delay time until a restart will be determined according to each own set data of the air-conditioning apparatuses, and the plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses can be discretely restarted at the time of recovery of power and provides an extremely high probability of avoiding a case where all air-conditioning apparatuses are restarted simultaneously and stopped again due to an instantaneous voltage drop of a commercial power supply.
Furthermore, this air-conditioning apparatus is provided with a timer to measure a power failure period and the decision circuit is configured so that a delay time is changed according to the measured power period from the timer, making it possible to control the pressure balance condition of the compressor by measuring the power failure period, make full use of the stop period, shorten the time after the recovery of power until the restart of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus, and reduce a variation of the room temperature from the set temperature.
Furthermore, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the air-conditioning load based on the output from a room temperature detecting means for detecting a room temperature and the output from an outdoor air temperature detecting means for detecting an outdoor air temperature, and a decision circuit configured so as to correct a delay time based on the air-conditioning load, making it possible to define the air-conditioning load of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus by measuring the room temperature and outdoor air temperature, correct and optimize the delay time after the recovery of power until a restart of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus based on the air-conditioning load, and reduce a variation of the room temperature from the set temperature.
Furthermore, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the main unit load based on the set data stored in the recording circuit and the decision circuit configured so as to correct a delay time based on the main unit load, making it possible to use set data such as on the operation mode, the volume of air and the wind direction to define the main unit load of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus, correct and optimize a delay time from the recovery of power to restart of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus based on the main unit load, reduce the starting current of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus by optimizing the pressure balance state of the compressor, and reduce a voltage drop of the commercial power supply.
Furthermore, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the main unit load based on the set data stored in the storage circuit and the decision circuit configured so as to correct a delay time based on the main unit load, making it possible to define the main unit load of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus by using set data such as on the operation mode, volume of air and wind direction, correct and optimize a delay time from the recovery of power to restart the separate type air-conditioning apparatus based on the main unit load, reduce the starting current of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus by optimizing the pressure balance state of the compressor, and reduce a voltage drop of the commercial power supply.
Furthermore, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the main unit load based on the room temperature detected by the room temperature detecting means and the set temperature stored in the storage circuit, and the decision circuit configured so as to correct a delay time based on the main unit load, so that it is possible, with the room temperature and set temperature, to consider the operation cases with the thermostat turned OFF or with varied operation frequencies of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus. Thus, it is possible to define the main unit load more clearly, correct to optimally minimize the delay time from the recovery of power to the restart of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus based on the main unit load, reduce the starting current of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus by optimizing the pressure balance state of the compressor, reduce a voltage drop of the commercial power supply, and reduce a variation of the room temperature from the set temperature. An operation mode of automatically recovering a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses that are stopped by a power failure in the operation mode before the power failure after a recovery of power provides an extremely high probability that each air-conditioning apparatus will correct and decide the delay time until a restart based on the main unit load and discretely restart a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses at the time of recovery of power and provides an extremely high probability of avoiding a case where all air-conditioning apparatuses are restarted simultaneously and stopped again due to an instantaneous voltage drop of a commercial power supply.
The air-conditioning apparatus of a second embodiment of the present invention automatically recovers in the operation mode before the power failure and is provided with detecting means for detecting set data that decides the operation of the air-conditioning apparatus, a calculation circuit that generates random number data when a command is received from the detecting means, a storage circuit that stores the set data from the detecting means and random number data from the calculation circuit and a decision circuit that decides a delay time until a restart according to the random number data, and is capable of deciding the delay time until a restart of the separate type air-conditioning apparatus at the time of recovery of power according to the random number data.
Furthermore, as in the case of the air-conditioning apparatus according to the first embodiment, this air-conditioning apparatus is provided with a timer to measure the power failure period, and the decision circuit is configured so as to change a delay time according to the power measurement period from the timer.
Furthermore, as in the case of the air-conditioning apparatus according to the first embodiment, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the air-conditioning load based on the output from the room temperature detecting means for detecting the room temperature and the output from the outdoor air temperature detecting means for detecting the outdoor air temperature, and a decision circuit is configured so as to correct a delay time based on the air-conditioning load.
Furthermore, as in the case of the air-conditioning apparatus according to the first embodiment, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the main unit load based on the set data stored in the storage circuit, and a decision circuit is configured so as to correct a delay time based on the main unit load.
Furthermore, as in the case of the air-conditioning apparatus according to the first embodiment, this air-conditioning apparatus has a calculation circuit configured so as to calculate the main unit load based on the room temperature detected by the room temperature detecting means and the set temperature stored in the storage circuit, and a decision circuit is configured so as to correct a delay time based on the main unit load.